"Aunt Jeanne," I began slowly while I struggled to lift my jaw off the ground. Dad chuckled behind us as he grabbed my suitcase out of his car. "When you said you had bought a place I thought you meant an apartment downtown, not, well, not this."

"This" was a mansion built on the south side of Captain's Hill, with a tall ivy covered wall surrounding the property. The mansion itself was huge thing, two floors with large arching stained glass windows and all done in a style more reminiscent of a cathedral than a house.

All in all it was one of the most beautiful buildings I'd ever seen.

My aunt laughed and shook her head. "Oh don't look like that," she said. "It was actually rather inexpensive all things considered. Seems some villain or such used to live in it and no one else was very interested in purchasing it."

This was a villain's mansion? That is so cool! "Of course they cleaned it out well before it was put up for sale, since it's previous owner was a criminal," Dad said as he opened the front door. Darn it. He and Aunt Jeanne shared amused glances as I expressed my disappointment. No, I did not pout.

Okay, maybe I pouted a little.

Jeanne pushed me through the door and handed me her bag. "I'll be in once I tell the movers where to put everything. Then we can get started on your training. I hope you're ready."

I swallowed nervously and let Dad lead me to my new room. Up a flight of stairs and down a long hallway, my room was the last one. It was also at least twice the size of my old room, as well as having it's own attached bathroom.

Witch training. Somehow, it still sounded just as surreal and dreadful as it did when it was first brought up, along with the rest of the conversation at the hospital while we'd waited for me to be cleared for release.

I shuddered. The thought of having been so close to going to Hell, literally going to Hell, still chilled my blood. I needed the training. I had the potential to be a hero, but I needed a lot of work if I didn't want to die doing it. For some reason, being a martyr really didn't appeal to me. Funny that.

I tossed the last of my bags onto the floor of my new room and sighed at how empty it looked. The moving crew hadn't yet brought up my bed, which meant my belongings filled a small corner of the room. That stung, seeing how little space all my worldly possessions fit into.

I gave my head a shake and started separating my bags. No point in dwelling on things like that. I pushed aside the two boxes of Mom's things and grabbed my suitcase from the bottom of the pile.

I opened my suitcase and dug around for the tracksuit I'd bought when I started going for runs in the morning. I slipped into my bathroom, which had its own shower and bathtub which I was so looking forward to using, and quickly changed before I headed out to the backyard. The track suit still didn't fit perfectly, I was a touch too thin and I hadn't had much time to change that since I'd bought it, but it would be good enough.

The backyard, the back half of the estate to be more precise, was a wide open field pretty much, surrounded by a thick wood that ringed the property and hid the property wall from view.

Aunt Jeanne was sitting on top of a fountain that had long ago dried up and been choked up by vines and grass. I shifted uncomfortably in my ill-fitting tracksuit as she reclined in a skin tight red leather outfit that reminded me of how awkward I looked. She gave me a quick look up and down and shook her head. "Remind me afterwards to teach you how to create your own clothing," she said, barely loud enough for me to hear. Her hands blurred and a pair of objects flew towards my head. "Catch."

I grabbed them out of the air and looked at the pair of wooden pistol mockups in confusion. "What are these for?"

"Those are to teach you how to fight until I can find you a set of decent weapons to properly train you with."

I stared with trepidation at the fake pistols and my Aunt in turn as I found my voice. "'Decent weapons?'"

"Something we'll deal with later. For now, it's time to start your training. Since you are a beginner, I suppose I'll go easy on you," Jeanne said warmly. The smile she had on her face did nothing to comfort me though. "I suggest you become a fast learner if you aren't already."

My eyes widened as she put her hand onto the fountain and sprung off it and into the air. She flipped around once before she landed lightly on the ground. I really hoped she planned to teach me how to do that.

"Now, if this were the old days," Jeanne said as she began to pace around, "you would have already spent years developing the basic skills of our craft. Since we don't have that much time available to us, until you have developed adequate skills, your best option is to act on your instincts and the knowledge granted to you by the demon you contracted."

She stopped and stared at me. After a few moments I shuffled my feet and picked at my collar. "Uh," I started awkwardly. I cleared my throat. "So, how do I do that?"

"By fighting of course." Jeanne's grin grew wider as she pulled a long narrow bladed sword from out of nowhere. Wait, what? "En Garde."

In the blink of an eye Jeanne had crossed the distance between us. I dropped backwards to avoid a slash that would have gone right through my torso. I scrambled back to my feet and tried to drop into something resembling a ready position.

This time the attack came from behind me, the rush of displaced air and sound of the sword whistling the only warning I had. I twisted myself around, the blade falling beside me and digging a small trench into the earth.

"So you can dodge a single strike," Jeanne noted dryly. "Let's try two this time, shall we?"

She moved while I was still in the middle of catching my breath, the tip of her sword punching through the air as turned my body to avoid it. There was no pause as the blade drew back slightly before cutting towards me.

Once again I found myself bent backwards as it passed over my head. The blade tipped down and I twirled around as it suddenly rose in a vicious uppercut. This time as I spun around I struck out at Jeanne's hand with a kick. Jeanne deftly redirected it with a flick of her wrist. Unbalanced, I toppled to the ground. As I lay there in a daze Jeanne leaned over and offered her hand to me.

"Just like your mother, always jumping ahead." She shook her head and gave me a fond smile. "That was lesson two. the best defense is one that you can turn into an offence."

"Let's see if you can repeat that, shall we?" Jeanne said as she withdrew a second sword from her hair. "And use those guns of yours this time." Her grin reached past her eyes as she settled into a ready stance.

Maybe it wasn't too late for me to try for redemption and join the church.